On ABC’s 1980s action series “The Fall Guy,” Lee Majors played Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who, as a side-hustle, worked as a freelance bounty hunter. His experiences with stunt driving made him well-suited to track down bad guys, and his constant exposure to danger gave him an appealing devil-may-care attitude. He was often aided by fellow stunt performers Kid (Douglas Barr) and Jody (Heather Thomas). Majors himself sang the theme song. The “Fall Guy” IP was eventually revived decades later when director David Leitch adapted the premise into a big screen Hollywood blockbuster starring Ryan Gosling. The 2024 “Fall Guy” movie was spectacular, by the way.
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In the “The Fall Guy” episode “Old Heroes Never Die” (which aired on May 2, 1984), Colt becomes embroiled in criminal malfeasance with an old baseball star named Ron Perkins (Paul Winfield). Perkins was once a star player but has since fallen on hard times and is now $50,000 in debt to the mob because of a gambling addiction. Perkins returns to town to play in an exhibition game, only to wind up getting caught when he tries to steal some valuable pearls from a local pawn shop. Colt believes in Perkins, remembering his moral standing from when he was a teen, and bails him out after the theft. It’s then revealed that Perkins just wanted the pearls as a wedding gift for his daughter. Nevertheless, he has a bunch of mobsters on his tail.
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It turns out Colt’s apprehension of Perkins breaking into a pawn shop paralleled an experience from Colt’s teen years. In a flashback, Colt recalls trying to break into a store with the help of his friend, a no-goodnik named Chuck. Colt, you see, just wanted a catcher’s mitt, and Perkins rounded the corner and caught the two youths trying to pick the lock on the closed shop’s front door. Chuck fled, but Colt was caught. Chuck, as a keenly-eyed observer will note, was also played by Jack Black.
The Fall Guy was Jack Black’s first TV series
In the flashback, Chuck fled pretty easily, while Colt got a stern lecture from Perkins. Perkins, however, was a decent guy and told him that being poor is not a crime, and that stealing from a local merchant is real loser behavior. Perkins even handed the young Colt a pair of tickets to a local baseball game. It was a very nurturing response. The episode doesn’t feature Chuck again after that. Chuck was clearly the troublemaker, as he was the one who suggested he and Colt steal the baseball gloves to begin with, and he knew how to jimmy a lock. “It’ll be a cinch,” as he put it. Black even posted this scene to his Instagram account back in 2024, as you can see below:
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Black had aspired to perform from a very early age, acting in a commercial for Atari’s “Pitfall” when he was only 13. He acted through high school and eventually dropped out of UCLA to pursue a professional acting career. All during that time, though, he picked up a few notable professional gigs, including his guest spot on “The Fall Guy” playing Chuck. He was about 15 at the time. The following year, he also had a guest role on “The New Leave It To Beaver.” It was around this time that he met Kyle Gass, and the pair formed the comedy rock band Tenacious D, a whimsical and, ultimately, lucrative act.
Black secured his first film acting gig in 1992 when he appeared in Tim Robbins’ political satire “Bob Roberts.” This led to other collaborations with Robbins, as he appeared in “Dead Man Walking” in 1995 and “Cradle Will Rock” in 1999.
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In 2000, Black finally became a bigger name thanks to his amazing performance in Stephen Frears’ “High Fidelity.” Tenacious D would then go on to release their first hit record in 2001 and starred in a movie titled “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny” in 2006. Black has been working hard for decades and deserves every bit of his success. These days, he regularly opens blockbusters like “A Minecraft Movie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
And to think he was once just a punk named Chuck. Solana Token Creator
